


Placing plaster on broken porcelain

by Winterchildboobear



Series: In the face of anxiety, I freeze [4]
Category: Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, Josh needs a hug, Swimming, They’re both 17, minor child abuse, tyler cares
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-05
Updated: 2019-06-14
Packaged: 2020-05-07 17:52:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19214512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Winterchildboobear/pseuds/Winterchildboobear
Summary: In the summer, Tyler and Josh decide to go swimming, well, Tyler did. Josh stood behind his excited friend, dreading the idea of having to only wear swimming trunks, leaving bruises and other marks in the open that would only bring more issues.





	Placing plaster on broken porcelain

**Author's Note:**

> This is a flashback type of chapter as requested by a reader. This will explain how Tyler came into knowing about the abuse Josh faces from his dad.

Josh was woken by the persistent pounding of someone at the front door. The heavy thumps travelled through house, echoing in the hallway.

Groggily, Josh pulled his head away from the comfort or his pillow to glance at  clock, an ugly thing that Tyler had got him. The clock had a hand painted picture of a shirtless Santa, with the words “Santa Bae Bae” scrawled acrossed it in Tyler’s handwriting. The bright green letters glared an obnoxious 8:37 a.m. back at him. 

Groaning, he rolled over and shoved his pillow over his head, trying to drown out the sound of another person’s existence downstairs. The door continued to endure the wailing of the visitor for another minute before he heard his mother’s cheerful greeting. The pounding stopped, presumably because she had split away from her coffee to go and stop the noise.  _We sure aren’t a family for company are we,_ josh thought sarcastically. 

With the noise finally stopped, Josh settled back into his bed. Shuffling deeper into the blankets as the fan blew softly across his face. Suddenly the bedroom door flew open, the crash of wood against plastic was excruciating. 

”Oh shit!” The door slammed back into its frame, “I’m so sorry, man. It’s okay, you don’t use the Wii anyway. Oh, wait mario cart! It’s okay.” The hurried footsteps of the intruder made their way across the room before the weight and elbows of another person found the Josh shaped lump below the blankets. 

Josh groaned as the weight shifted to spoon behind him. 

“Wakey wakey,” Tyler whisper sang into Josh’s ear. “Your room is way too hot, why are you even in blankets, you monster.” The blankets were tore away, leaving Josh frowning into his pillow. His arms wrapping around himself as the once delightful wind from the fan turned freezing. 

“You are the devil,” Josh mumbled as his best friend sat up behind him. Nimble fingers poked at Josh’s back, dragging across his spine as Tyler drew words into his shoulder blades. Goosebumps rose across Josh’s arms, but he blamed the fan for that. 

“You know that you’re terrible at drawing letters, and I’m equally bad at guessing them. So why do you even keep trying,” Josh flipped over onto his side to stare up at Tyler. Tyler was frowning down at him, his eyebrows hunched together. 

”How will we ever get better if you don’t let me practice?” Tyler had stared the whole secret language a few months ago, when church was especially boring to their teenage attention spans. 

Josh yawned and ignored his friends question. Dragging a hand over his face Josh rubbed sleep from his eyes before he dragged himself into a half sitting position. 

“Why are you even here? It’s way too early for you to be awake.” Josh was usually up several hours before Tyler during the summer. Tyler let his insomnia run wild when he wasn’t held to high school time frames, it led to long nights. 

“Josh?” Tyler’s voice was patient, Josh could tell that he had said his name several times. 

“Sorry, I’m just tired.”

”Its fine, just grab your trunks. We have to leave in a few hours.” Cold dread spilled through Josh’s veins as the words sunk in. 

“Trunks?” He repeated, blankly. 

“Yeah, swim swim, you know? Those trunks. Man you really weren’t listening to me were you?” Tyler raised his eyebrow as Josh gawked at him. 

“No,” Josh rushed out. He winced as the word came out harsher than he intended. Tyler’s face went slack for a second with shock at his friends outburst. Then hurt settled in, Tyler dropped his head, clapsing his hands together in his lap as Josh pushed himself into sitting upright,

”I’m sorry, I didn’t meant to say it that way.” Guilt tore at his chest when Tyler just shrugged without responding. 

“Swimming, with who and where?” Tyler picked at his nails before mumbling,

”Its just with my family, at the pond by my grandparents’ house.”

”Okay, I’ll go.” Tyler’s eyes shot up to look at Josh, excitement coloured his dark eyes. 

“Really? You don’t have to. It’s okay. But really?”

”Yeah, of course,” Josh choked out with a lopsided smile. Tyler launches himself off of the bed, making his way to the door. 

“I have to go tell my mom, come over when you’re ready, we are leaving at noon!” Josh nodded but Tyler was already gone. Tyler’s voice rang through the house as he said goodbye to Josh’s mom, but Josh barely heard it as he started to panic to himself. 

Swimming meant no shirt. No shirt meant issues...Josh’s dad had relapsed into old habits since summer started. The busy life style had put strain on him, while Josh hadn’t helped with his “Teenage asshole angst act” as his dad had called it. 

Dragging himself out of bed, Josh went into the bathroom that was attached between his and his brother’s room. Shutting the door behind him, he locked both of the doors as he flicked the light switch on. The dim lighting made Josh’s skin look luminescent. Dragging his shirt over his head, Josh examined his upper body. His left ribs were covered in greenish yellow bruises, reminders of last weeks family issues.

Twisting around, he peered at his shoulders and back. A large purple bruise sat wedged between his shoulder blades, from where he was shoved into the corner of the living room coffee table. Smaller bruises of different colours were scattered on his back, a few belt buckle shapes glared angrily at him from his lower back. Sighing, he ran a hand over his face as he grabbed his toothbrush, squinting toothpaste onto his brush, Josh peered at himself in the mirror.

 _How am I going to figure this out?_  

 


End file.
